Loading...

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

48 Sydenham Road, East Croydon, Croydon CR0 2EF
Review Us

Funding & Fees

• Funded hours: The 15 and 30 hours offer is subject to a valid and verified eligibility code. You can find out if you are eligible on the Childcare Choices website.
• Funded hours: 15 and 30 hours offer is based upon a stretched offer across 51 weeks of the year.
• Discounts: 10% sibling discount, 10% NHS discount and 10% Croydon Council employees.
• Minimum 3 Days attendance
• Childcare Vouchers: We accept childcare vouchers which your employer may offer through Salary

Sacrifice.

Type of Service

  • Day Nursery

Opening Schedule

Open all year

Full days available

Yes

Half day sessions offered

No

Group/Owner

Person in charge

  • Leah & Lindsey (Manager & Deputy Manager)

Number of Childcare Staff

  • 10

Total Places for Children

  • 96

Age Range

  • from 0 years 3 months
  • to 5 years 0 months

Meals Provided

No

Consumables provided

No

Opening Times

  • Monday 07:30-18:00
  • Tuesday 07:30-18:00
  • Wednesday 07:30-18:00
  • Thursday 07:30-18:00
  • Friday 07:30-18:00

When Closed

  • Bank Holidays, Inset Days & Christmas
Are you the Owner/Manager of Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon? View your Advertising Options

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon Reviews (13)

6.9

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon has a Review Score of 6.9 (6.939) out of 10, based on 5 reviews in the last 2 years. Over all time Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon has 13 reviews.

Filter Reviews
Overall Experience
Date Published
Reviewer Connection to Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
Loading...
Showing 13 reviews matching selected criteria
Review from Joe C (Father of Child) published on 20 March 2026 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

"My son has had a wonderful experience at this nursery. The staff are caring, patient, and genuinely invested in the children's development. He's grown in confidence, made friends, and looks forward to going in every day. The communication with parents is great, and the activities are always thoughtful and engaging. We're really grateful for the support and couldn't be happier with the nursery."

Reply from Leah ., Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you for the great feedback, it means a lot to us and we love looking after your son!

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Ashley P (Mother of Child) published on 20 March 2026 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

My son has been attending little pumpkins since he was 8 months old and he is now soon to be three! Since giving my trust in them to watch my son 4 days a week they have been fantastic, the ladies really care, are engaging and make it as fun as possible for all the children with creative and pro active activities. I'm impressed of how much he has learned since attending. There was some staff changes last year but the team they have now are very strong and reassuring. My son has never been upset or unhappy to go in and loves it! Thank you all for all you do - love Ashley, Joe and Cason!

Reply from Leah ., Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you for your lovely feedback, it is an absolute pleasure to look after your son and we all love watching him grow!

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Sreerupa S (Mother of Child) published on 6 March 2026 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience
Roses are red,
Pumpkins are bright,
My son LOVES this daycare
With all of his might!
He learns, he laughs, he plays all day,
Little Pumpkin is the best--Hip Hip Hooray!

Little Pumpkin is the only place where my son happily waves goodbye to me...and sometimes forgets I exist for a full 5 seconds!

Reply from Leah ., Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you so much for your lovely review, we absolutely love looking after your son and it has been a pleasure to watch him grow in confidence in his time with us!

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from S A (Mother of Child) published on 18 February 2026 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

I am extremely concerned about the lack of transparency at Little Pumpkins Nursery. A safeguarding incident took place in the preschool room and parents were not informed at all and that the police are involved. Heading this from parents is completely unacceptable and goes against the basic expectations families have for communication and safety.

There also continues to be serious instability within the nursery. Managers keep leaving, other staff are following, and this constant turnover is affecting the quality of care. It's becoming harder and harder to trust the leadership or get clear answers to important questions.

On top of this, there seems to be more focus on money than on providing a stable, safe environment for the children. They have even lost a nursery that was already rated "requires improvement," which raises major concerns about how the organisation is being run overall.

Parents deserve honesty, consistency, and a childcare setting that puts children's wellbeing first

Reply from SLT, Senior Leadership Team at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
Thank you for your feedback. We take all comments seriously and were surprised by your review, particularly as we supported your family with relocating to another nursery, provided a full deposit refund, and transferred your funding to ensure a smooth transition.

The closure of our other site was...  

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Masud A (Father of Child) published on 13 January 2026 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience
ZERO STARS IF I COULD
If you love your child, stay away from Little Pumpkin Nursery.
I waited to write this until my son had finally left because I was scared. Now I feel responsible to be honest.
Management is chaotic, with constant staff turnover and no consistency. My son hated attending. Children need routine and familiar carers - this nursery offers neither.
The app is misleading. It regularly contained false information, especially about meals. Days my son ate nothing were logged as "finished all food." When questioned, management dismissed it. This isn't poor updating - it's dishonest and misleading.
The nursery is disturbingly secretive. A serious incident involving the police occurred and parents were not until someone posted a review on another platform.

Care was poor. My son often came home in wet clothes and socks and was constantly ill. On one occasion he was sent home in the wrong nappy size, causing rashes and red marks. This is basic childcare, and they failed

Reply from SLT, Senior Leadership Team at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
We take all feedback seriously; however, several statements in this review are inaccurate and misleading and do not reflect the professional standards or regulatory oversight of Little Pumpkins Nursery.

Little Pumpkins has provided early years childcare for over 23 years in full compliance with...  

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Bethany A (Mother of Child) published on 9 October 2023 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

Our son went to Little Pumpkins from the age of 1 and left just before he was 3 as we were sadly moving a bit further away. The staff have always been so wonderful and caring towards him and his language and development came on so much after starting. He loved the food and the activities and we got to see photo updates of his day through the app. The management team are fantastic and always available if you need to speak and it feels like such a personal service. They all took so much time getting to know him at the beginning and helped him settle in quickly. It’s a really personal nursery where everyone from the key workers to the owners knew our son really well. We were so sad when he left as they’ve been amazing.

Reply from Cheryl Mccarthy, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
Good afternoon. Thank for your recommendation and kind words.

Our mission is to provide excellent childcare and constantly working towards providing high standards, to ensure the children, families, and team thrive to their full potential. Best wishes for the future. Little Pumpkins.

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from O B (Mother of Child) published on 9 May 2023 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

My daughter went to this nursery for about 1.5 years. She saw many different staff members and management due to the high turnover. She became regularly unhappy to go and the new faces every week did not help this. The staff were very unhappy, the children were unhappy and the level of care was low. It had such great potential to be a very good nursery however there were many management issues and this caused my child to be regularly distressed. They said they had this everywhere however other nurseries I visited had a way lower turnover of staff which spoke volumes. My daughter now goes to a much better nursery and the change in her energy to go to the new one has been amazing. I would not recommend this nursery at all.

Reply from Dean Nicol, Managing Director at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
At Little Pumpkins, we take pride in our company culture and positive work environment. Our recent Ofsted inspection in Feb 2023 resulted in a strong “Good” rating for our childcare services, marking our 20th anniversary in the industry.

We were particularly pleased with the inspector's comments...  

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Scott F (Father of Child) published on 7 March 2022 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

A lovely new and really nicely renovated nursery but apart from that, it has been a less than fortunate experience having our child at this nursery. On more than one occasion we have had safeguarding issues because of the amount of unexplained bruises our child would come home with. It has the potential to be an amazing nursery, but in the end, we had to remove our child due to safety concerns. In the time our child has attended the nursery there have been too many changes in staff which have not supported our child's needs. We were promised many things when we attended our initial introduction one being that a chef that would prepare the children's meals. This was not the case. We really started to see things worsen when staffing issues resulted in combining the children of mixed age groups into one space at the basement level.

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Hi, thank you for taking the time and effort to write your review. We were very pleased when your son settled in October 2020, it was a delight to look after him and he was a happy child at our nursery. As a company, we are proud and have worked very hard to ensure that the new East Croydon Nursery...  

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
No Rating
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Amelia B (Mother of Child) published on 14 February 2022 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

My two-year-old daughter attends this nursery and I couldn’t be happier. The staff are amazing and very attentive, my child always looks forward to going to nursery every morning. The building is well refurbished compared to other nurseries I visited in the area. I can’t recommend Little Pumpkins enough.

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you so much for your feedback, I will pass your comments on to the staff team.

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Meg S (Mother of Child) published on 24 May 2021 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

We are so happy with the care and education that Little Pumpkins provide for our daughter! She started and was quite nervous, as was I, but after a couple of weeks doesn’t look back and talks about her friends and what she’s been up to and it is clear that she is stimulated and encouraged to be herself which I really like! I have noticed a huge difference in her confidence after lockdown and I am so pleased we chose Little Pumpkins! She is learning social skills and this is helping her confidence, I feel the staff have welcomed us and taken the time to understand her, and she is loved and cared for in a spotlessly clean environment! And she is very happy about the food!

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon
Thank you so much for your comments, we strive to ensure that all the children in our care are happy and excited to be with us here at Little Pumpkins Nursery.
Your comments are really appreciated.

Again thank you.

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Marzia C (Mother of Child) published on 18 February 2021 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience
Great nursery with such caring and attentive staff. My child loves going there and she learned so many new things since she’s part of the Mini Tweenies! I love the app system where parents can see how the day goes and all the activities that children do, with photos and comments! Very practical.

Would definitely recommend it!!

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you so much, we do indeed value your comments.

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Carly L (Mother of Child) published on 18 February 2021 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience
My child started when Little Pumpkins East Croydon opened and he settled straight away. All the staff are so caring and passionate about what they do, we could not have picked a better place for him to start his education. I saw a massive change in my child’s development straight away, he absolutely loves it and talks about nursery and the staff all the time.
The facilities are excellent with multiple rooms to cater for different ages. They are stocked with so many toys and sensory equipment and the outdoor space is really big for a central Croydon spot.
They use an app to keep you updated on your little one's day; nappies, food, naps etc and also ask frequently for your tots interests so they can personalise their learning.
Prime location only a few minutes from East Croydon station. Indoor buggy storage is also a winner for me!

We couldn’t be happier with Little Pumpkins and highly recommended them.

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you so much for your wonderful comments, very much apppreciated..

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money
Review from Katie H (Mother of Child) published on 15 February 2021 Submitted via Website
Overall Experience

My son has been attending Little Pumpkins at East Croydon since the beginning of January 2021 and I am so happy with my choice of nursery. The nursery itself is immaculate, so clean, nice decor and a great selection of toys for kids to play with a nice outdoor garden too! The staff have been amazing, my son has settled in nicely and you can tell they all love the job and really care about each individual child. I would highly recommend this nursery it was everything I personally was looking for.

Reply from Deborah Wilson, Manager at Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

Thank you so much for your comments. We at Little Pumpkins really do value your comments.

Facilities / Outside Space
Learning
Resources / Equipment / ICT
Care
Activities
Staff
Food / Nutrition
Management
Cleanliness
Safeguarding
Value for Money

Child Vacancies

Please contact us for latest vacancies.

News (0) & Events (0)

News

There are no news items for Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon.

Upcoming Events

There are no upcoming events for Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon.

Awards / Recognitions (0)

There are currently no awards/recognitions posted yet for Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon.

Meet the Team (0)

There are no Team Members posted yet.

Frequently Asked Questions about Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon

What is the Age Range of Children that Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon accepts?

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon accepts Children aged from 0 years 3 months to 5 years 0 months.

What Days & Hours is Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon Open?

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon is open: Monday 07:30-18:00, Tuesday 07:30-18:00, Wednesday 07:30-18:00, Thursday 07:30-18:00, Friday 07:30-18:00.

How many Children does Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon have capacity for?

Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon has capacity for a total of 96 Children.

How far is Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon to the centre of Croydon?

0.5 mile(s) as the crow flies, distance by road may be significantly further.

Information on this page is displayed without responsibility for its accuracy on the part of daynurseries.co.uk. Please contact Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon to verify any information. View our terms and conditions. Little Pumpkins Nursery - East Croydon has a Basic Service - more info.